Ventilating air mattresses have been developed and are used in the medical field to minimize bed sores and blisters experienced by people confined to bed for extended lengths of time. These mattresses are inflated with pressurized air from a pump connected through an aperture and have a plurality of pores through their top surface allowing a controlled flow of air therethrough. The ventilating air mattresses distribute the support of a patient over a greater area of the patient's body (when compared to conventional mattresses) thereby relieving pressure in areas of bone protuberances which are highly susceptible to bed sores. The controlled air flow also assists in drying moisture which aggravates the bed sore problem.
Due in part to the success of these ventilating air mattresses in minimizing bed sores, health-care facilities with one or more of these mattresses keep them in near constant use. Once a patient assigned to a ventilating air mattress departs a hospital or other health-care facility, the ventilating air mattress is quickly sterilized and used with another patient. Several problems have arisen from the propensity to continuously use these mattresses. First, to withstand the magnitude of use to which these mattresses are typically subjected requires highly durable materials. This is particularly true for the top porous sheet, the seams, and the pump/mattress connection. A typical prior art ventilating air mattress is constructed of 200 denier nylon and is specially sealed to assure reliability. The expense of these materials and the associated construction costs inflate the unit cost of each bed.
Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the continuous use of the prior art mattresses with multiple patients leads to a risk of cross-contamination. Body fluids routinely soil the mattress covers and other bedding materials and, with extended use, the mattresses themselves may absorb contaminants and become soiled or stained by undesirable residue. Because it is difficult and time consuming, and therefore expensive to properly sterilize these mattresses, a tight financial climate may tempt hospital/health-care personnel to cut costs and save time by cleaning and not sterilizing these mattresses between uses. This practice significantly increases the risk of cross-contamination. A related problem is the accumulation of fluids, residue, and other contaminants within the mattress pores which may eventually clog these air passages. This again poses a cross-contamination concern and hinders the primary functions of the ventilating air mattress--relieving pressure in areas of bone protuberances and assisting in drying moisture which often aggravates the bed sore problem.
In order to solve these and other problems in the prior art, the inventors herein have succeeded in designing and developing a ventilating air mattress bed system which includes a two piece single use connector with electrical interlock for connection of a ventilating air mattress to a programmable air pump. The programmable air pump is electrically connected to the electrical interlock which is actuated upon connection of the ventilating air mattress to thereby enable the programmable air pump. The programmable air pump then inflates the air mattress for a predetermined time period or a predetermined duty cycle. At the end of that predetermined time period or duty cycle, the pump is programmed to turn itself off and will not recycle for another operation until the interlock is reset. As the connector between the ventilating air mattress and pump is a single use connector, and is designed to become mechanically inoperable upon disconnection, the same ventilating air mattress may not be simply disconnected and reconnected for a second duty cycle. Instead, once the ventilating air mattress connection is disconnected, it is no longer capable of reactivating the electrical interlock and a new ventilating air mattress with an unused connector must be reconnected.
The single use connector with electrical interlock is designed as a two-piece connector with the electrical switch portion being permanently mounted on the programmable pump and the inexpensive mechanical actuator portion being mounted on each ventilating air mattress. This mechanical actuator portion on the ventilating air mattress piece is mechanically damaged upon disconnection so as to render it inoperable, but the electrical switch portion on the programmable pump remains intact. Consequently, the replaceable ventilating air mattress and connector portion are relatively inexpensive, mechanical pieces, which facilitate their ready replacement.
Thus, the present invention is a significant improvement over the prior art by providing a system which limits the risk of cross-contamination associated with the continuous use of a single mattress in the prior art. Moreover, the materials and manufacturing costs necessary for this limited use mattress are small in comparison to the prior art ventilating air mattresses, and, due to its elegantly simple design and construction, the single use connector and programmable pump of this invention are easily used without significant training. While the principal advantages and features of the present invention are briefly described above, a more thorough understanding and appreciation for the advantages and features of the invention may be obtained by referring to the drawings and descriptions of the preferred embodiments which follow.